


Bandwidth

by AcaWiedersehen



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Cafe AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-18 06:50:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7303957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcaWiedersehen/pseuds/AcaWiedersehen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>{Café AU}<br/>Sameen Shaw, after being let loose of her military duties at the young age of twenty-two, finds herself working in a quaint café named The Subway. Months pass by in her new life, and without warning a young woman strides in, clad in her leather jacket and tight pants, and changes her world.<br/>(Plus she always takes up their bandwidth? What's up with that?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Limit Exceeded

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own POI, but /damn/... I wish I did.
> 
> This first chapter is pretty simple; more of an intro to the story I intend on writing.

 

<BANDWIDTH LIMIT EXCEEDED/>

* * *

 

Somewhere deep inside The Subway’s kitchen, Sameen Shaw sat with phone in-hand and a frown on her face. She had been trying to check her email for ten minutes, but to no avail. Instead of an insane amount of blue dots, Sameen was greeted by a continuous and endless cycling pinwheel. The pinwheel of death, her co-worker Zoe had called it. What made Shaw so upset was that the reason behind this furious wheel was an oblivious, pretty young woman hidden in the corner of their quaint cafe. She had been visiting for weeks, not ordering a drop, but always taking up one of their booths. ... And not just any booth either, but Shaw’s favorite. It was tucked within the furthest corner of their dimly let haven, away from people and right on the hotspot of their WiFi.

Day after day this woman would come in; hips swaying while a fancy laptop glistened under her arm. There, in Shaw’s spot, she would sit for hours on end- her only offered sounds being the furious clacks and taps of keyboard keys under perfectly manicured black nails. It was all so **aggravating** for Shaw, really. Sameen had spent the first handful of her adult years in the Army, being taught the do’s and don’ts of the world… High on the list of do’s were manners, which this woman had clearly lacked. Who in their right mind would just burst into an establishment without so much as a “hello”, and not offer a “thank you” to the people from which she was stealing all of the Bandwidth from? No one respectable, surely.

Fed up with this woman’s antics of three weeks, Shaw finally deemed it fit to approach her. She needed to put her in her place, and dammit, she wanted to check her email.

“Excuse me,” she started, faking a kind voice but not bothering with the smile, “do you need something?”

The woman looked up, her leather jacket crunching against the leather booth as her back adjusted to a more comfortable way of sitting. Taking a beat to look Shaw over, the woman smiled. It wasn’t a kind smile… It was one of those annoying, cocky ones that step-dads gave their children when they were right about something. “Maybe some company?”

Shaw offered an unamused glare in response.

Turning back to her laptop, the woman’s smile faded. “No? Then no, thank you.”

‘ _One, two, **three…**_ ’ Control was something Shaw had always lacked, and she really found her existence especially aggravating in times like these. It took all of her strength not to slam this woman’s laptop shut with an amount of force that would probably shatter it’s components, bells, and expensive little whistles. “Well, then I’m afraid I might have to ask you to leave.” Her lips were pursed, and her demeanor was rather… **_Snotty_** , _per se_. “Like most respectable and official businesses, we try to limit our services to those who order from us.” Sameen breathed in and let it out, “and those services include WiFi.”

The auburn-haired woman’s smile flickered back to life as she gently closed her laptop, placing her hands atop it in a defensive manner. “In that case, I’ll take a hot Mocha.”

“In that case, I’ll have to ask you to talk to the other Barista, Zoe.” Shaw’s tone came out more mocking and rude than intended. _Oh, well_ , she huffed, _she deserved it_.

Slowly, the woman pushed her lips together and began to rap out a mindless tune on her computer's aluminum surface. Then, wordlessly, she stood and strut over to the counter. Zoe and her had a small exchange of words, distribution of money, and distribution of goods before she returned.

 

Lucky for Shaw, she was still as silent as the moment she had left.

* * *

 


	2. Get Me Some Vodka

Shaw didn’t know if it was done to piss her off or not, but from every day forward the woman would purchase only water. She wouldn’t even purchase a cheap $3.54 Mocha… Only free water.

Harold, Shaw’s boss, said that this counted as a purchase for her.

Shaw thought that it was all a load of bullshit.

Harold was scared of this woman, and she didn’t know why. She could see something flash in his eyes every time he hobbled around the Café, checking tables and greeting customers. He never greeted the woman, though… Which furthered Shaw’s curiosity even more.

“Is she your long lost daughter or something?”

Harold pursed his lips and turned back to his computer. “No…” He murmured at last, “Ms. Groves, or Root… Is… Well, I’ve known her for some time. Indirectly at least.”

“And now she’s here? Is she stalking you?” Shaw’s back stiffened, “do I need to do something about her?” The question flew out without control, and she was understandably relieved when Harold brushed it off.

“No. She’s not a danger…” He cleared his throat, “she just knows that I provide excellent internet service.”

“Do you have a private server or something?”

“I guess you could say that.”

Shaw stopped there, not willing to delve into it further. This was oddly abstract for Harold- and she didn’t know much about the technological world, so she felt that pushing and intruding more could end in an undesirable fashion. Still, it was weird.

From that conversation onward, Shaw watched this “Root” a little more closely.

 

 

“Do you want to go and grab a bite to eat some time?” Root lifted her hands from her keyboard before looking to a bewildered Shaw.

“Excuse me?” Sameen, who had been walking by Root with coffee in hand for the twentieth time that day, stopped dead in her tracks.

                  “You keep coming up to me like you’re going to say something,” she explained, “I couldn’t help but hope that ‘something’ would be a date request.”

                  “Nope,” she stated.

                  Root frowned.

                  “But thanks for the offer. Now I can cross ‘ _get asked out by an annoying and suspicious nerd that comes to the coffee shop every day without ordering anything except for my patience_ ’ off of my bucket list.”

                 

Before she could retort, the sharp sounds of multiple gunshots echoed through the still café air. _Shit._

They had found her, just like a bullet had found Sameen’s left arm. The moment Root looked upon Shaw, worry etched into her features, she slapped down her glass pitcher of coffee and grabbed at her newly freed hand. Sameen winced and pulled back, if only for a moment. As soon as another gunshot rang out, Root had pulled Sameen out through the back of the café and into the women’s restroom.

 

                  “Shit, who the hell was that?” Sameen questioned, ripping off her apron and tearing away at one of its straps. Root looked upon her with interest and concern, ready to help, but was eventually shut down as Sameen began patching herself up. “Are you listening to me?” Her stern brown eyes looked up towards Root’s.

                  “Definitely not the CIA,” she started, “probably an independent organization.”

                  Shaw huffed, “wow, thanks, that helps a lot.” Shaw had learned a lot about governmental tirades, and it was no surprise that this wasn’t one of those. “What I’m trying to get at is _what do they want_?”

                  “Probably me.”

 

Shaw had to do a double-take at the quickness of her answer. She sounded pretty confident, and this was not something she should have been confident over.

                  “What the fuck do you mean _probably you_?”

                  Root gently began backing both herself and Sameen into one of the blue stalls, locking the door as footsteps neared. Casually, Root ducked down and placed one foot on the toilet seat, and then another before inviting Shaw up with her. She beckoned her forward rapidly, holding out her hand… Which Shaw quickly swatted away. “There’s a reason I like Harry’s Wi-Fi so much,” she started. “It’s a heavily-encrypted proxy network. Which,” she shrugged, “in my line of work is _very_. _Important_.”

                  Shaw’s racing heartbeat seemed to drown out the sounds of Root’s careful whispers. This was not cool, she noted. Not her ideal way of ending the week. What was even less cool was that when Root was leaning forward, giving away useful information, Shaw couldn’t even pay attention. All she could do was feel this woman’s hot breath on her cheek, tickling her ear, making her squirm. As soon as she tried to duck away, a quick **_sploosh_** sounded around the duo and a certain _coolness_ washed over Shaw’s right foot. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

 

Her foot was now one pound heavier with piss water.

 

Sameen allowed her teeth to set, back molars pressing against each other out of utter annoyance. Before she could take it out on Root, the bathroom door opened and the sound of shuffling feet sounded around them. Shaw took in Root’s crouched posture and replicated it, to which she earned a smug grin from Root in return. ‘ _You’re short enough as is. No need to duck_ ,’ [the look] said.

 

As soon as they got out of this stall, a tanned fist was going to find itself firmly set against a soft cheek. Repeatedly.

 

The men outside the stall shuffled around a little more, checking under each door before starting to push them open down the line. At this rate, the two of them were screwed… Until,

                  “Sir, the back door was just opened!”

                  Shaw let out a small sight of relief, “saved by the asswipe…”

Root smiled calmly and stepped down from her toilet–perch. Saved, indeed. Before she could turn around and make any sort of comment towards the shorter woman, a hiss erupted from [Shaw’s] lips and silenced her own. There was another gunshot wound, this one was on her left calf and had been completely missed. Without a moment’s notice, Root ducked herself below Shaw and under her arm, acting as a human crutch.               

                  “We need to get you to the hospital.”

                  “No,” Shaw retorted, “no, I can take care of myself. Thank you. Plus, I really don’t have the wallet for a twelve-grand hospital bill.”

                  “That was really specific.”

                  Shaw rolled her eyes. “Get me a knife, a lighter, and some vodka. I’ll be fine.”

                  “Will do.”

Together they wait in silence for a few moments, Shaw comfortably supported atop Root as they begin to weigh their options.

                  “… Really, I need some Vodka.”


End file.
